elvisisdead

I've already booked a *A reward (with AE miles) to BKK. I am flying AC through ICN in J and then ICN-BKK on TG (in C).

However, I've found availability through NRT on ANA in C, and then NRT-BKK on TG. This routing is more efficient and gets me into BKK 3.5 hours earlier, which means less time waiting in airports and an arrival at a decent hour.

I'd be giving up AC's fully horizontal seat for ANA's business class seat on a 777 for my trans-pacific flight. On the other hand, I flew ANA last summer (on a 763) and really enjoyed the experience.

Realizing that I won't be as comfortable in the ANA seat while sleeping, are the seats comfortable enough to get a little shut eye and justify switching flights? Obviously, opinions will differ, but I wanted to get some perspective from other FT'ers before I decide to change.

stargold

Both flights are daytime flights, so you probably won't be tired enough to sleep for a long time on the transpac sector anyway. In that case, NH definitely wins due to the vastly superior service/food/drink/etc in my opinion.

If it was a night flight, and if I was quite sure that I will fall asleep and wake up an hour before landing, I would probably take AC for the flat bed. But considering that you will probably be awake for the majority of the time, it would be much more pleasant on NH.

PS. Is there no space on the TG nonstop?

elvisisdead

Thanks for your reply.

I'd actually be flying YWG-ORD-NRT-BKK, so the LAX-BKK flight (which I assume you are referring to) wouldn't work too well for me - I'm already seeing too many airports

stargold

Well, if you can't go for the nonstop, then definitely go for NH J.

NYCWahoo

IMO, AC's AVOD is much better than ANA's. Also, out of ICN if you can take OZ's flight to BKK is it's better service and aircraft then TG's.

Q Shoe Guy

They have recently enhanced the AVOD on NH. AC has had problems with the Thales AVOD system they use. The food is far superior on NH...the service on NH is also quite good, and to be fair the service on AC can also be good (but in a different way). AC uses fully flat pods for J, NH uses slant/flat in J. I recently flew YWG/ORD/PEK/BKK on UA and TG in F......TG F was far superior to UA F..... And I have flown both NH J and F on numerous occasions....

wcaldog

I have flown both NH J and AC J in tranpac segments and AC does have better seats. They are flat and NH's seat keeps sliding me down I feel. What prompted me to post this is becuase I HATE AC food. I flew C PEK-YYZ and it's the most disgusting food I have ever had! Everything was oily and greasy. I have had the worst croissant I ever had in my life on that flight. Just imagine doughy croissant that is oily and the oil smells! It's so bad that even with better seats, I will never chose AC if I had a choice. I have flown with AC a few times within north america, to Europe and to HKG in Y and the food were always one of the worst.

ulyparis

I flew both NH and AC on transpac several times. My experience has been as follows.

AC plus
Seats: the best, like F on other airlines
They serve champaign while the plane is boarding (NH does not)
Avod (when it works; otherwise you get credit or miles)
Service in French language (I know, absolutely personal bias)
Food on flights to NRT has always been excellent. Kaiseki plate is great!
Recognition of AC status

NH plus
Service (more FAs than AC)
Exotic feel
Service in Japanese language (which I like to practice; another bias)
Food is excellent but not vastly different than AC's

As far as OZ in concerned, I flew them once (in Y though) and it was a very bad experience (no advance seat assignment, no BP issued from abroad if you start your itinerary with NH, no newspapers, no recognition of *A gold). Unfortunately my experience with OZ has been limited as after that flight 4 years ago they have been put on my no-fly list.

Why one would transit unnecessarily through the US is beyond my understanding. Heard so many horror stories including misconnections due to delays.

elvisisdead

Thanks for the replies; I decided to change to NH and called up AE, but was told by the agent there was no availability showing.

There is availability showing on the ANA tool; does ANA block seats for release to other airlines? Or would this be an Aeroplan issue?

BTW, transiting through ORD from YWG is not a hassle; we clear U.S. customs here in YWG and are treated like a domestic flight when we arrive in ORD.

Guava

More likely than not, a hang-up-and-call-back issue. Translation: "An agent who doesn't know what he/she was doing." Aeroplan does not usually filter award space like UA does. Star Alliance carriers typically do not give more inventory to its own FFP passengers beyond what's shown on Star Net.

You should post a new thread in the Air Canada forum on this if the problem persists since you are using Aeroplan miles, not ANA miles.

BlondeBomber

This might be an Aeroplan IT issue.

Check the availability between city pairs first. If AE's own software shows availability between each city pair,

e.g.
YVR-HKG return
then
HKG-BKK return
then
BKK-SIN return

as individual Round Trips
(or whereever you are going)

Call back if you can see the availability and let them know you checked by segment not by connections and it shows availability for each pair.

I just ran into this on a YYC-DEN-LNK trip and could see availability on both YYC-DEN and DEN-LNK but when I asked for YYC-LNK it said no availability. The agent could see the problem, couldn't explain it (but seemed to understand it happened regularly) and booked it for me.

Guava

I think I have an explanation re: this phenomenon. Star Net is only capable of showing a limited number of connectioins from point A to point C via point B. Usually, it tries to pick the most logical connection as per direct routing and connection time or total travel time. For example, a trip from YVR to MIA may never show LAX as possible connections even though it is allowed. Therefore, if the limited number of connections shown are not available, the agent would assume no other combination is available. I use ANA tool a lot and based on experience, I can tell you that BD agents see pretty much the exact same thing as ANA tool.

Another possible reason is when a flight between two points has too many direct flights for the system to dispaly. For example, YYZ-YUL has well over 20 flights on any given day. Yet, Star Net and ANA toold is limited to display less than what AC shows as available. If you try to book YYZ-YUL, point to point, it will normally cut off after 20:00 and stop showing any other flights after that point. When trying to redeem awards, agents will tell you the said flight, say at 21:30 is not available because he/she can't see it when doing as a segment by segment check. This can be tricky, the ANA tool has the same deficiency as well. Keep this in mind when booking awards.

concol

What I always do is spoon feed the Aeroplan agent the exact flight numbers and times you want. Like others have said if you let the agent pick the route their system doesn't show all the possible routes.

ulyparis

This is exactly to way to do it. Even the ANA tool does not show all route. Often you need to check the flight separately.

For example YUL-YVR (late flight), night in YVR, then YVR-NRT the following morning, perfectly legal, will never show up.

fly747first

And also, AC's crews are significantly worse than NH's, especially on this route that is highly senior for AC's crews.